One Room Challenge: Week 2 - Clear Out/Demo
Hello and welcome to the blog!
We are in week two of the One Room Challenge, which means it’s time to kick this project into full gear! If you missed week one, check it out here to see where this dining room started.
I want to share my ORC timeline with you so you know what to expect each week for the rest of the challenge.
Timeline:
Week 1 - The plan
Week 2 - Clear out/Demo
Week 3 - Drywall repair
Week 4 - Chair refinishing
Week 5 - Painting
Week 6 - Building shelves
Week 7 - Trim & finishing work
Week 8 - Reveal
The focus of this week was clearing out the space and demoing anything that wouldn’t be staying. This process was actually much faster than anticipated. I finished in about two days, which is great because I had other obligations this week as well. Let’s get into what I needed to get done for week two of ORC!
To-do:
Remove baseboards
Take down the sensor in the corner
Remove electrical cover plates
Remove stickers from the glass door
Clear out the dining room as much as possible
Take decorative light fixture down
Remove the shelf from the wall
Take the mirror off the wall
Remove chair rail
Supplies:
Utility knife
Putty knife
Hammer
Heavy-duty bent scraper
Clearing out the space: Removing the light fixture, shelf, and mirror
Before removing shelf and mirror
After removing shelf and mirror
Leading up to the One Room Challenge I was decorating the rest of the house for Halloween (one of my FAVORITE holidays), so there was a bit more clutter in the room than usual. I started by moving everything out of the space. Then I removed the decorative part of our light fixture, took down the shelf from the wall, and took down the mirror. Side note: this mirror is an antique and one of my favorite pieces. I’m definitely going to do my best to put it back in this dining room; it makes the space feel so much more open!
Chair rail removal
Scoring the caulk between the chair rail and the wall using a utility knife
Using a hammer and putty knife to pry the chair rail from the wall
The first step to removing the chair rail was to score/cut the caulking between the trim and the wall. Next, I used a putty knife and a hammer to pry the chair rail away from the wall. The chair rail was only held in place by the caulking and a few finishing nails, so it came off fairly easily. When I needed to pry more forcefully the heavy-duty bent scraper came in handy. Finally, I used pliers to remove any finishing nails left in the wall.
Baseboard removal
Prying the baseboard with a putty knife
Using a heavy-duty bent scraper, wood chisel, and flathead screwdriver to pry the baseboard that broke below the tile
The tile in my house was installed AFTER the baseboards, making the baseboards harder to remove. The steps for removing the baseboards are pretty similar to the chair rail; score caulk and then pry with a putty knife and hammer. The main difference here is that the tile causes the baseboard to break into pieces when prying. The solution I found is to use a wood chisel or screwdriver to break up the grout near the baseboard, then get the tools underneath the baseboard and pry upwards. It can be a frustrating process at times, but it does get easier as you move along.
This is the second room in my house where I have removed the chair rail and baseboards. If you want a more detailed explanation of how I did this, check out my Small Hallway Makeover blog post or comment below, I’d be happy to help!
Take down sensor
Attempting to figure out how the sensor is attached to the wall
Sensor removed
This sensor in the corner has not worked since we bought the house in 2017, and it always bothered me that it was there, so I’m glad it’s gone now! Honestly, my husband helped me take it down because I wasn’t sure how it was attached to the wall lol. All it took was scoring the paint around it and removing a few screws. I wish took it down years ago!
Remove electrical cover plates
Light switches with cover plates
Light switches with cover plates removed
The final task for the clear out/demo was to remove the electrical outlet covers.
The light switches above had two different size covers, not sure how it happened, but they will have the same size cover when the room is done!
Old phone line
Old cable line
There are two electrical boxes in the dining room that have been covered since we bought the house. One is for a phone line, and the other is for a cable line. They are in an awkward spot on the wall and are hard to hide. I will close off both boxes and cover them with drywall next week. I’m looking forward to that wall not having multiple blank outlet covers!
Just like that . . . demo is done!
